When interacting with a member of your team, do you jump to problem solving or seek the best in them?
The Appreciative Inquiry approach focuses on creating positive changes and searching for the best in others.
As a leader, one of your responsibilities is to spot and embrace the talents of your team. By doing so, you are able to gain a clear sense of the person and a better understanding of their strengths and how to maximize them.
The Appreciative Inquiry approach assumes:
- In every society, organization, or group, something works.
- What we focus on becomes reality.
- The experience of reality is created in the moment and there are multiple experiences of reality.
- The act of asking questions influence the group (or individual) in some way.
- People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future when they carry forward parts of the past with them.
- If we carry parts of the past forward, they should be what is best about the past.
- It is important to value differences.
- The language we use creates our reality.
A key element of the Appreciative Inquiry Approach is the clarity of vision. If there is clarity of vision within a company or a group, decisions can be made easier, especially during difficult and confusing situations.
On a continuous basis, high performing team members ask themselves: How can I improve? Is this activity or action aligning with the vision? Having direct answers to these questions can help gain a clear sense of the person.
